Worst Congress in our history

History tells us that emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned. History will reflect that President Obama fiddled around a golf course with Tiger Woods.

And history was made by this Congress of the United States. They are probably the worst Congress in our history. They didn’t fiddle; they just decided they needed a break from doing nothing and took a recess and fled the scene.

There was a time when this great country of ours had legislators who were patriots and statesmen. They voted for the good of the country, not the good of the party. Those days are gone.

Listen to the words of U.S. Sen. John C. Calhoun from a speech he made in 1835 — 178 years ago. “The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowing for the good of the country, and not for the benefits of an individual party.”

Wish that all our politicians today could red those words and live by them.

Sid Tanenbaum, who lived in Woodmere and owned a metal-stamping shop in Far Rockaway, where he was known more for his charitable ways than his two-handed set shot, has been honored for the past 30 years with a basketball tournament that raises scholarship money for students in the Five Towns.